Frequency hopping

Principle and benefits Using frequency hopping allows adapting and maximising the frequency reuse pattern efficiency by maximizing the capacity in terms of offered Erlangs/Mhz/km2. Basically, frequency hopping spreads the spectrum of the signal to minimize the impact of potential interferers. Changing the frequency used by the channel at regular interval does the spreading. Main benefits are found in the following areas: increase of the capacity impact of interferers is decreased decrease the impact of propagation (fading, rayghley holes) easier frequency planning easier roll out easier frequency parameters settings The two recommended strategies for non BCCH TRX (1*1 or 1*3) generally lead to the same capacity (number of TRX per cell) for a given frequency band. The 1*1 pattern is however recommended because the frequency plan for TCH group is easier to do than the 1*3 pattern. This is particularly the case when adding cells, TRX or frequencies in a network. Frequency hopping benefits for RxQual and RxLev: minimizes the standard deviation between RxQual samples. The RxQual value is computed on 104 burst using the whole set of frequencies. The frequency hopping eliminates the number of bad Rxqual samples but also reduces the number of good RxQual. The higher the number of frequencies in the hopping law, the narrower the distribution. lowers the impact of Rayleigh fading for slow mobiles. Rayleigh corresponds to a high attenuation of the signal at a given point due to multiple path. The area of the fading or fading hole has a very small size directly dependant on the frequency of the signal (for different frequencies the hole is not at the same place) . When moving the mobile is obviously less sensitive to these fading holes and looses few information. With slow or even not moving mobiles, the mobile stay during a long time in the hole and looses a significant amount of information. Resistance to interference: speads interference on all RF spectrum, highly loaded sites benefit from lower loaded adjacent sites, more efficient error correction gain form digital processing.

How does it work

AT DRX LEVEL Instead of having determined frequencies for TCH, TCH TRXs can hop on n frequencies. Burst after burst, the frequency used by the DRX to emit the messages changes. If n hopping frequencies are used At T0, frequency 0 is used on DRX 1 At T1, frequency 1 is used on DRX 1 At T2, frequency 2 is used on DRX 1 At T3, frequency 3 is used on DRX 1 . At Tn, frequency 0 is used on DRX 1 At Tn+1, frequency 1 is used on DRX 1 AT CELL LEVEL As the same frequencies are used by all DRXs of a cell, one must ensure that two DRXs do not use the same frequency at the same time. Lets take the case where 4 DRX are hopping on the cell. One must ensure that when DRX 1 is using frequency fn, the 3 other DRXs use another frequency. This is achieved thanks to a different MAIO: mobile allocation offset. If available frequencies are f0, f1, f2, f3,fn F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 Fn MAIO 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 n The MAIO max number depends on the number of hopping frequencies that are configured. BEWARE: if frequencies are adjacent then MAIO must have a space of 2 between each other. DRX 1: MAIO 1 DRX 2, MAIO 4 DRX 3, MAIO 7 T0 F1 T1 F2 T2 F3 T3 F4 Tn Fn Tn+1 Tn+2 F1 F2

DRX 1 MAIO 1 DRX 2 MAIO 4 DRX 3 MAIO 7

F4

F5

F6

F7

F3

F4

F5

F7

F8

F9

F10

F6

F7

F8

Within a cell, all frequencies must be spaced of at least 400kHz.

AT SITE LEVEL Unique (HSN,ofst) ensures no collision within a site

HSN1 MAIO 1,4,7

HSN1 MAIO 10, 13,16

HSN1 MAIO 19,22,25

Within a site, all frequencies used must be spaced of at least 400kHz

AT NETWORK LEVEL Different HSN between sites ensure that collision will happen 1/N of the time. Sites with the same HSN will collide 100% of the time. So at network level, the RF planner that sites with the same HSN are far enough so that they do not interfere. Why does it provide a defense against interference: *Lets assume that one frequency f2 is interfered. Only 1/n of the time with frequency hopping the frequency f2 will be used (if n frequencies are defined in the frequency hopping object) there is interference. So it spreads the interference and the human hear can reconstruct the signal. Example: Sentence: It is not thinkable that the dog can be ill Without frequency hopping and interference on that very frequency that is used All the sentence will be badly received With frequency hopping, the interfered frequency is used when the emission of a is done and again at n of ill Received sentence: it is not think ble that the dog ca be ill The human hear will reconstruct the signal and the listner will understand it is not thinkable that the dog can be ill

Conclusion: with frequency hopping, there is no more a DRX that emits perfectly because not interference and another DRX with interference but all DRX are interfered 1/n of the time but less impact on the voice quality.

Presentation of the reuse patterns: The frequency load is the ratio of the number of hopping TRX in the cell by the number of hopping frequencies in the cell. Management of quality and frequency load The number of hopping frequencies in a cell is deliberately kept larger than the number of hopping TRXs Frequency load = number of hopping TRXs number of hopping freq.

For a 1*1 pattern, all cells use the same set of frequency. The number of hopping frequence cell = number of hopping frequence site. The maximum frequency load in 1*1 that ensure that there is no intra site collision is 16% For a 1*3 pattern, there are three groups of hopping frequencies, 3*number of hopping frequence cell = number of hopping frequence site. The maximum frequency load in 1*3 that ensures that there is no intra site collision is 50% The maximum frequency load is the basis of the following study for engineering rules concerning frequency hopping. Example of reuse pattern: 1*3 pattern with a 4*12 for BCCH (30 carriers 12 for BCCH) = 18 for frequencies so 18/3 frequency groups =6 frequencies for TCH Group 1: G1 Group 2: G2 Group 3: G3 Each cell contains 7 frequencies 1 TRX for BCCH non hopping and up to 3 TRX hopping on 6 frequencies as 50% frequency load is permitted in 1*3 pattern.

G1

G3

G2

G3

G2

G1

1*1 pattern with a 4*12 for BCCH: (30 carriers 12 for BCCH) = 18 for hopping TDMA Each cell contains 18+1=19 frequencies 1 TRX for BCCH non hopping and up to 4 TRX hopping on 18 frequencies as 16.6% frequency load is permitted in 1*1 pattern.

HSN and MAIO parameter settings enable to be sure that the DRXs of the network will not interfere each other. It is obvious in this example that frequency hopping associated to fractional re-use patterns leads to a subsequent gain in terms of offered Erlangs per cell. Parameters: The parameters used to set frequency hopping are the following ones: HSN : hopping sequence number Nf : numer of hopping frequencies MAIO: mobile allocation index offset between 0 and Nf-1. Each hopping TRX has a MAIO MA: mobile allocation HSN and MAIO parameter settings enable to be sure that the DRXs of the network will not interfere each other. BtsIsHopping : whether frequency hopping is allowed in the cell CellAllocation: list of no more than 64 frequencies allotted to a cell in the network frequency band. Mobile allocation: in the frequency hopping system object, it gives the frequencies that are used for hopping FHSRef: defines the frequency hopping parameter for the radio time slot HoppingSequenceNumber: use a unique HSN per cell to avoid frequency collisions. This however leads to a specific MAIO plan more restrictive than the one with different HSN in cells. Use a unique HSN per site. Sites bearing different HSN will statistically collide 1/Nf of the time (whatever the MAIO) (Nf is the number of hopping frequencies) MAIO: index in the list of frequencies allotted to a radio TS. It is using the orthogonality principle. The MAIO must be different for each TRX within a cell in order to avoid frequency collision. If the Mobile Allocation contains adjacent frequencies, the difference between two TRX MAIO within a cell must be greater than two.

HSN and MAIO properties: Sequences bearing different HSN will statistically collide 1/Nf of the time (whatever the MAIO) (Nf is the number of hopping frequencies) Sequence bearing the same HSN but different MAIO are orthogonal (no collision)

HSN and MAIO general rules: In case of 1*1, it is obviously forbidden to re-use the same value of HSN and MAIO on two different cells of a same site. As they are synchronized this would automatically lead to frequency collision. It is also forbidden to use different HSN in cells of a same site. It would automatically lead to frequency collision. Network HSN plan Once a strategy for HSN and MAIO plan within a cell has been defined, an HSN plan must be elaborated for the network. The MAIO plan will be the same for all the sites. But for the HSN plan, usually a minimum distance between two sites using the same HSN is defined. Furthermore the use of the same HSN in a cell and in its jammers is also not recommended. numberofhoppingTRXcell Frequencyload NumberhoppingFrequenceCell for a 1*1 pattern, the number of hopping frequence cell = number of hopping frequence site. 16% max if no intrasite collision is expected for a 1*3 pattern, 3*number of hopping frequence cell = number of hopping frequence site. 50% max if no intrasite collision is expected